Beer bread recipe - courtesy of Miss Brittany

This has quickly become a family favorite!  We bought a couple of loaves from a Relay for Life bake sale.  I found out who made it and lo & behold it was Miss Brittany!  She was kind enough to share the recipe with us and we've made several loaves already :)

I LOVE this recipe!  It's so simple, quick, few ingredients and just delicious!

Ingredients:
- 1 can of room temp. beer
- 3 cups of self rising flour
- 1/2 cup of sugar
- 1 stick of butter

Mix the beer, flour and sugar together well. Place in greased pan and bake on 350 for 40-45 minutes. Then take it out and pour the 1 stick of melted butter over the top of it and bake again for another 5-10 minutes! 

Dairy Queen ice cream (homemade!!)

This is another 'knock off' recipe from our newly acquired cookbook.

I'm not a big homemade ice cream fan, so I was a bit skeptical when Kevin received an ice cream maker for his birthday from his Aunt Minnie.

However, as of tonight, I'm a fan.  I was amazed by just how much this ice cream tasted, looked & felt like Dairy Queen's soft serve.  And, imo, the biggest plus was the recipe didn't call for eggs.  BONUS!

1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1/4c cold water
1c milk
1c sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2c heavy cream

Sprinkle the gelatin over the water and let stand for 5 min

Meanwhile, heat the milk to almost a simmer over medium-low heat.

Remove from the heat.

Stir in the sugar, vanilla, and salt with a wire whisk until the sugar is completely dissolved, at least 2min.

Stir into the gelatin mixture and let cool.

Stir in the cream.  Cover and refrigerate for 6 hrs.

Transfer to an ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer's directions for about 20min or until creamy.

We chose to top with hot fudge and caramel, though it certainly did NOT need it!

Boston Market meatloaf

Kev bought a really cool cookbook awhile back titled "America's Most Wanted Recipes"  It has lots of 'rip off' well known recipes from various restaurants.

Tonight he decided to try the Boston Market meatloaf.  He varied from the recipe slightly.  We used ground turkey, instead of beef (which the recipe says you can do) but part of it was italian seasoned - the flavor was pretty good, but a bit spicy for the kids.  The other variation was he used crushed oyster crackers rather than bread crumbs.

1/2 c ketchup
1 1/2 tablespoons hickory barbecue sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef (you can also use ground turkey instead)
1/3 c all purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 c italian bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 400*F

In a large bowl, stir together the ketchup, bbq sauce, and sugar; set aside 1/4c of the mixture

With your hands, mix in the remaining ingredients.

Form the mixture into a loaf and place in a greased 9X5in loaf pan.

Baked, covered, for 30min

Uncover and drain the fat from the pan, then slice the meat loaf while still in the pan.

Drizzle the reserved tomato mixture evenly over the meat loaf.

Bake, uncovered, for an additional 30min, or until cooked through.

ENJOY!